


On Traditions

by PuppetMaster55



Series: The Book [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Family Bonding, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:42:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25885267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppetMaster55/pseuds/PuppetMaster55
Summary: It's been several months since Danny got his life back, and he's surprised as Christmas rolls around quietly.
Series: The Book [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878376
Kudos: 14





	On Traditions

Snow fell in huge flakes, blotting out the world in a scattered canvas of gray-white. Danny stared out the window, watching the flakes pile up on one another, and gave the window a tap with a glowing hand. No frost spread out from his touch, the snow didn’t even grow or ice over. 

He sighed. So the ice powers really were something completely made up. Danny hoped that they weren’t, hoped that something from the future was real, anything at all, but in the months that passed there was nothing. No book at the Skulk and Lurk had any mention of Fredreich Isaak Showenheimer or the Reality Gauntlet. The Far Frozen still didn’t exist, or Ancient Greece, or Ancient Egypt. Dani still hadn’t shown up, or any of the other failed clones. Valerie hadn’t gotten a new suit. And he didn’t have ice powers. 

At least he had the holidays to look forward to. And wasn’t that something, that he was actually looking _forward_ to Christmas instead of dreading it. He snorted. 

“This is reality,” he told himself. “None of that was real. This is real.” 

A month after returning home, he’d taken the Specter Speeder and given his family a tour of the Ghost Zone. Mom and Dad had taken to it like tourists, all cameras and recording devices. More than once, more times than Danny liked, he was prepared to point something out that wasn’t there. It made him feel like he was back at square one, not knowing anything about his enemies. 

His fifteenth birthday had passed in August, just before school started, and Danny had been confused that morning, walking into the kitchen to see HAPPY FIFTEENTH spelled out in a banner. He’d blinked dazedly at the banner, and commented without thinking “Couldn’t find one that celebrated seventeen, huh?”  
It was the wrong thing to say, the worst thing to say, as the grins on his family became strained. He’d mumbled an apology, sitting at the table and pretending that it hadn’t happened. Thankfully, Mom and Dad and Jazz caught on and played along. 

“This is real,” Danny repeated, because he was fifteen, not seventeen. He was going to get his learner’s permit this coming spring, not a new car. He was going to finish his sophomore year of high school, not graduate a senior. “None of that was real.”

Jazz had suggested it, a phrase for Danny to say, a constant reminder that what he experienced wasn’t real. She’d also given him a journal to write it all out in, a way to get it out. He filled it in a day, and the next four she’d given him. He wrote and wrote, eventually filling out an entire shelf of journals. Jazz hadn’t said anything, and neither had any of his teachers if he seemed to be more focused on filling out a journal than on the subject. Lancer, especially, would peek over Danny’s shoulder and give him a look full of things he’d rather avoid. 

“This is real,” Danny said, and tried not to wonder when he would start to mean them, if he would ever start to mean them. 

Eventually, he got hungry and left his bedroom, walking down the stairs and to the kitchen. He expected to hear the usual argument by the fireplace, but his parents weren’t there. Danny was halfway done pouring the milk when he realized. “Wait.” He turned to where Mom and Dad were sitting quietly – _quietly_ , as if it weren’t bad enough – at the table. “Whaaaat’s going on?” 

“Breakfast, Danny-Boy!” Dad boomed, munching on a spoonful of cereal. Danny stared at his parents, then at the living room already decorated for the holiday, then back at his parents. 

“…the Christmas decorations went up,” Danny said, pointing right at them. “Even the stockings.”

“Of course dear,” Mom replied, putting her emptied bowl in the sink to rinse. 

“And you’re… okay with that?” Danny prodded, trying to find out what the punchline was. The Christmas decorations _never_ went up without a fight. “What about Santa?”

Mom and Dad shared a look, pointed and heavy with a conversation that Danny could only guess at. Dad sighed, and stood with a morose glance at his breakfast. He and Mom guided Danny to the couch, and Danny sat down. 

“Danny,” Dad began, looking like this wasn’t something he really wanted to talk about. “Your mom and I have been talking…”

“Sweetie,” Mom continued, when Dad trailed off and didn’t seem keen on following through. “Last year, you – well, you vanished. And we had no idea where you’d gone, or why.”

“Jazz mentioned the holiday fight we had, and we…” Dad spoke up, struggling to find the right words. “Well, Vladdie said that you were babbling when he found you. Talking about how you couldn’t take our argument anymore.”

Oh. They were putting aside their Christmas argument for his sake. Even when they knew it was a lie. Half a lie. 

“You don’t have to do that,” Danny tried to argue, but it sounded weak even to him. How did it sound to them if he couldn’t even convince himself? “Just… last year was…”

“Stressful?” Mom suggested, a fond smile on her face. Danny winced. 

“Yeah. That.” He coughed. “Look, you guys don’t have to stop the tradition for my sake.”

“Tradition,” Mom muttered, before her eyes widened. “Oh! Jack you told him about the wedding proposal?” 

“Wedding proposal?” Jazz walked into the room, looking confused. “What, did Dad attack you thinking you were a ghost?”

Mom and Dad grinned at each other, and Danny sat back, a smile growing on his face as they began to regale the story of the Christmas Battle of UW-Madison. Maybe his ice powers never happened, but he would never go back to that life for all the ghost powers in the zone.


End file.
